A cube has 8 faces that are all squares.
It can be a dice or a box filled with bears.
from All About 3D Shapes
written and read by Jarrett Corder
accessed on YouTube 2/24/25
Ernö Rubik not only invented the world’s most popular puzzle, a couple of years ago he published a book about it. In Cubed: the Puzzle of Us All (Flatiron Books, 2020), Rubik shares the journey he took to invent his famous cube, his thoughts about solving problems, and how astonishing it is to have invented something so successful.
He’s a sculptor, an architect, and a designer. He defines sculpture as a combination of art and technology. He loves to work with the design of objects and explains the art of all types of design to his students.
His cube demonstrates the relationship between space and geometry. It is his way to explain simply and visually with material, how it feels to live in a three-dimensional world.
It is simple and complex at the same time. “[T]his contradiction is the content of the cube,” explains Rubik.
He likes to replace the word problem and all its bad connotations with challenge, a word that encourages using creative thinking to reach a goal. He believes that play is an important part of problem-solving.
While math proves there are more than forty-three quintillion (mathematically 43,252,003,274,489,856,000) ways to solve Rubik’s cube, Jim Hogan learned if a solver masters only seven algorithms, the puzzle can be solved quickly no matter how it is scrambled.
Jim’s autistic. He’s an engineer at Google, and he says that solving the Rubik’s Cube changed his life. When he learned to solve the cube, he discovered ways to solve physical problems that he could not solve before. He needs to fidget. Playing with his Rubik’s cube, even in public, is socially acceptable.
At least in the Google environment.
In our regular world, kids (mostly) practice and compete to get faster and faster at solving the puzzle. The World Cube Association lists over 48 upcoming competitions before the end of next week (3/10/25). They take place everywhere from Nairobi, Kenya to Kathmandu, Nepal, and from Bangladesh to New Zealand, and include many right here in the USA.
The competitions emphasize speed. It takes practice and learning algorithms, the series of steps a cuber uses to move the 2-dimensional faces of each facet of the cube, to reach the goal: nine same-colored squares on each of the cube’s six sides.
Rubiksplace.com is a website devoted to listing the qualities to look for in a cube. Speed, smoothness, corners (round or square), quality of the magnets used, customizability, and spring tension, are all both subjective and objective. A list of brands comes next followed by a list of which cubes the record-holding cubers use.
An advanced speed cuber can solve a 3x3 cube (one that has nine squares on each face) in under 15 seconds.
My grandson’s record is a little over 30 seconds! He’s on his way!
Some cubers memorize the algorithms (found on various sites and YouTube). Some practice finger dexterity. Some learn combinations of algorithms arranged as techniques.
Here’s an easy and thorough example:
In a YouTube interview, Ernö Rubik says he wants the legacy of his cube to show that people can solve problems, even difficult ones, if they are not afraid to fail on their first or millionth step. And they don’t need a teacher. Only their own combination of intuition, experience, and creativity. Each person’s solving process will be different.
And, he adds, the more difficult the problem, the sweeter success feels when it is solved.
People discover a lot of things when they start to work through solving a Rubik’s cube, whether it’s an algorithm, how to get unstuck, or how to solve multiple things at the same time. It’s a discovery process where the solvers discover new things about themselves.
Rubik admits there are many reasons to solve problems. You can meet your target by getting faster, but you can also become more capable of asking questions. And asking them, for Rubik, is more important than answering them. He notes that oftentimes, the answer is embedded in the question.
His cube has been used to explain everything from mathematics to psychology, and physics to human intelligence. Rubik says he is not interested in how quickly his cube can be solved. He is more interested in how many different ways he can discover to reach the goal of the solve.
It’s the difference between taking a walk in the park to notice and enjoy the wildlife and running across a busy street to avoid being hit by a car. Both are important for very different reasons.
Because I enjoyed Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, I started her new book, The God of the Woods (Riverhead Books, 2024). When a camper is discovered missing from her bunk one morning, the search for her involves the property owners (who are the parents of the missing girl), the camp personnel, and the rookie detective assigned to the case. Family history, relationships, and intrigue come together to make this one riveting read. Recommended.
Be curious! (and look for solutions)
FB: I visited our local planetarium on Youngstown State University’s campus last weekend. It helps a little, thinking of our planet as a tiny part of a huge universe. And being with my grandsons helps my perspective in more ways than I can count.
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